My English Shepherd, Lad, a car chasing collie, was bumped by a car on our driveway on Monday. My fault, he was in the Bobcat, we were fencing close to the road, I had the window open as it was hot in there, the neighbor unexpectedly pulled into the driveway... anyway, no fracture, but a swollen front leg.

I took him into my old practice today, he had Xrays w/o sedation (his first ever trip to the vet), just a muzzle. No bony damage thank God. He did not offer to bite, he was really good in fact, but being a big "shepherdy" dog earns you a muzzle if no one knows you.

I was given Deramaxx- supposed to give 50 mg once a day.

and Tramadol- supposed to give 50 mg twice a day.

I can look these drugs up, which I will do --- but I'm wondering what your experiences are with these medications. Lad is on these meds now. He seems calm, lying under the kitchen table, but not what I would call "resting comfortably". He seems edgy.

What I'm asking about is the "mental effect" of these medications, as I have no experience with them,having 1) never really done any small animal medicine to speak of and 2) pretty much retired in '96. These drugs are post my era.

Hope Lad will recover ASAP.

I use to give Deramaxx to my Sharpei at each episod of Sharpei Familial Fever(25mg once a day, Kenji weights 74 lbs).

From my understanding, Deramaxx is safer than Metacam (less side effects).

As I always give this medication for a short period of time depending how long the fever lasts, I do not know what will be the side effects on a long period of time.

In my case, the side effects that I observed were a loss of appetite and a lower energy level the following days.

Lad really isn't very bad at all, but because I have pretty good access to the clinic, having worked there forever, I took him in for Xrays.

I have never heard of Sharpei Familial Fever either! Fascinating.

Hi Betty. I had to start giving Kasey Tramadol yesterday. He has been limping on and off for the past month or 2 so we did xrays yesterday. He has arthritis in his left front elbow, plus the radiologist thinks there is calcifying flexor tendinopathy (never heard of that until today!) and thinks surgery may be needed. But my vet, who I love and is very conservative in her approach, says that she doesn't see a lot of success with elbow surgeries - especially in an older dog. So we are giving Tramadol for the pain for 2 weeks, then tapering down to 'when needed', hopefully.

I questioned her a lot about the Tramadol. She said it is safer than Nsaids for dogs. That it is very well tolerated both physically and mentally. She said it usually doesn't cause drowsiness, and if it seems to make them a little sleepier than normal that usually always goes away within a week. She hasn't had any of her dogs not able to tolerate it, and it is by far the pain drug of choice now for moderate to severe pain. Apparently dogs don't develop a tolerance to it like humans do to opiates.

Im sorry, have you heard of these new lasik treatments for arthritis? May it help?

They are also doing are stem cell implantation for arthritis. It's very effective. My holistic/chiro vet has been doing it for a while now.

She also will not prescribe derramaxx at all. She feels that medicam is the least of the evils if that type of medication is required. It is the one that has the least side effects. But if used other then short term...blood work should be done monitor liver/kidney etc for any nsaid type of drugs.

Tramadol can cause constipation...
..You might want to add some pumpkin to the diet to keep things moving.

Lad is SO much better today that I am not going to give him any more medication at all, he needs to rest, not run all around. I saw miraculous antiinflammatory results with the Deramaxx, a single dose. It seemed equivalent to a huge blast of steroid.

I am going to buy an electric collar and end the car chasing once and for all.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Lad is SO much better today that I am not going to give him any more medication at all, he needs to rest, not run all around. I saw miraculous antiinflammatory results with the Deramaxx, a single dose. It seemed equivalent to a huge blast of steroid.

I am going to buy an electric collar and end the car chasing once and for all.

Just be sure to get Ed's E-Collar DVD FIRST It's an Absolutely "Must Use" !!!

And I really love my Educator (brand) E-Collar...

 Quote: Candi Campbell

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

Lad is SO much better today that I am not going to give him any more medication at all, he needs to rest, not run all around. I saw miraculous antiinflammatory results with the Deramaxx, a single dose. It seemed equivalent to a huge blast of steroid.

I am going to buy an electric collar and end the car chasing once and for all.

Just be sure to get Ed's E-Collar DVD FIRST It's an Absolutely "Must Use" !!!

And I really love my Educator (brand) E-Collar...

DITTO ... http://leerburg.com/318.htm